Somali Pirates Face Justice, Finally

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Somali Pirates Face Justice, Finally

MOMBASA, KENYA – At a small federal courthouse in this sweltering port town late last week, the Kenyan legal system won a major victory in the international war on piracy. Eight suspected Somali pirates, captured by a British frigate while allegedly trying to hijack a Danish cargo vessel off the coast of Yemen in November, filed into a room full of lawyers, reporters and witnesses for a brief hearing, during which they were officially charged with piracy. There were no other major actions – the case is being deferred until January – but the very fact that aKenyan court is hearing piracy cases is a big step.

Thursday’s court date coincided with a formal deal between the U.K. and Kenya for theRoyal Navy to bring captured pirates to Mombasa. The Royal Navy has assumed command of a new European Union anti-piracy force that onSunday kicked off its first mission, escorting a food ship toMogadishu.

Previously, there had been no widely accepted jurisdiction over piracy cases originating on the high seas. Since piracy is considered a criminal act, somebody has to give pirates their day in court. But as Somalia lacks a functional central government and fair legal system, other nations have had to step up. France has put on trial six suspected pirates captured in an April raid to free French hostages, but France is too far from the action to be a regular destination for suspects. Kenya is the best choice for a piracy court: it’s fairly democratic, pretty stable and has a major stake in the piracy fight. Kenya’s shipping and tourism economy has been hit hard by this year’s spike in ship hijackings.

In 2006, the U.S. Navy worked with Kenyan authorities to prosecute a pirate band, but for the most part, navies have avoided bringing pirates to justice, instead prefering to deter them, or just kill them.And in the rare instance when pirates did wind up in captivity, a navy often would just release them at the nearest Somali beach. Now, withKenya building legal precedence for trying Somali pirates in its own courts, there’s some place to take the suspected bad guys once you round them up. Building proper legal tools for addressing piracy could have a powerful deterent effect on sea crime.

“The potential for legal embarrassment are quite numerous,” cautions piracy expert Martin Murphy, from the Center for Strategic and BudgetaryAssessments. But without lawyers, jails and courts, there’s no real punishment for piracy, unless a pirate is stupid enough to open fire on, say, a bunch of British commandos. So embarrassments are worth the risk, to begin bringing justice to the high sea’s organized crime.